Pork and Potatoes

Yesterday I made two treats – one for dinner, and one for dessert! :) They both come from my new cookbooks and the first was a crock pot meal (yea, I already made something from 2 of the 3 books I bought Friday, ha). I’ll blog on the other one a little later! :)

The first is called Pork and Potatoes – hrm, that’s original. But really, that’s all it is. Here are the ingredients:

2 tbsp butter

1 tsp oil

1 large onion, thinlysliced (i had two small ones, really – its however much onion you want)

1 garlic clove (again, I keep minced garlic in the fridge – this worked fine)

3 cups button mushrooms, sliced

1/4 tsp. dried mixed herbs (i used italian seasoning)

2 lb potatoes, thinly sliced

4 thick pork chops

3 cups vegetables or chicken stock

salt and ground black pepper

So basically all you do is throw it all in the crock pot! But first, you need to heat the oil in a frying pan.

Look at me taking pictures WHILE I’m pouring the EVOO. So crafty. Anyway, when your oil gets hot, toss in the sliced onions and cook for about 5 minutes until translucent and softened. Then add the garlic and mushroom and cook further 5 minutes until softened. *I didn’t take a picture of this, I don’t know where my mind was!* Tip: Slice potatoes while this is all cooking

When that is ready remove the pan from the heat and add your herbs.

Then all you need to do is put half the onion mixture in your crock pot, then layer half of the potatoes sliced and season with some S&P! Use a little of the butter to grease the bottom and sides – adds a little flavor to the bottom.

Then using a sharp knife, and good skills (we don’t need any trips to the ER people) trim as much fat as you can off the pork chops. Then place them on top of the potato slices in one layer. The recipe doesn’t say to season them, but next time I make this – I am going to. I don’t know that you need more salt since it will be soaking in broth, but make whatever seasoning you put on your mushroom mixture you could flavor you pork as well? Play around with it and see what happens!! Then, pour about half of the stock, you may need more or less because you want enough to cover the potatoes to keep them from discoloring. Then – repeat! When you have your final potato slice layer, arrange them nicely in an overlapping fashion. It’s fun to make it look nice! Then, dot the remaining butter on the potatoes, fire ‘er up, put the lid on – and let it cook on high for 4-5 hours.

Make sure everything is tender when you poke at it – thats how you know its done. I think mine cooked a little too long, my pot gets really hot apparently! Next time, I’ll put it on low. When I served mine, everything just fell apart. Which is good, it doesn’t change the flavor – it just wasn’t what I was going for. So, take that into consideration – you know your crock pot!

Here’s the book final rendition of this meal (and what I was trying to make mine look like!!)

Oh, make sure you peel your potatoes. Well, I guess you don’t have to – but I would. AND – if you want a little crisp before serving, toss it under a broiler (the hot-pot) for 5-10 minutes. That will give you a nice crispy edge! I didn’t do this, but I think I might when we eat the left overs. Who doesn’t love a little crunch to their potatoes?